President Joe Biden’s allies on Sunday defended the commander-in-chief and blasted a special counsel report that questioned the president’s age and mental fitness as containing “gratuitous, unnecessary and inaccurate personal remarks.”
Mitch Landrieu, a senior adviser to Biden, told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that “this kind of sense that he’s not ready for this job is just a bucket of B.S. It’s so deep [that] your boots will get stuck under.”
Landrieu added that as a longtime adviser to Biden, he can testify to his mental acuity.
“I’ve been knowing him for 30 years. I have met with him personally. I’ve met with him with two people, five people, 10 people. I have been on trips with him, crisscrossing the country, rebuilding America based on this incredible infrastructure bill that was passed. And I’m telling you, this guy is tough. He’s smart. He’s on his game,” Landrieu said.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas offered a similar defense, calling Biden “sharp.”
“The most difficult part about a meeting with President Biden is preparing for it because he is sharp, intensely probing and detail-oriented and focused,” Mayorkas told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
When asked whether he or other members of the Cabinet have considered invoking the 25th Amendment, which would trigger a process for the Cabinet to remove and replace the president, Mayorkas said, “Not at all.”
“I don’t engage in politics. I’m responsible for governing and following the president’s agenda, which I scrupulously do,” he said.
Mayorkas’ response was in line with those of the White House and the president this week, as Democrats blasted special counsel Robert Hur for the comments in his report, which included concerns the president could potentially present himself to a jury as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”
The president himself on Thursday night told reporters at the White House, “How in the hell dare he raise that?” in response to allegations in the report that Biden didn’t remember when his son died.
